Harvesting mini-games

Leveling up harvesting skills (and harvesting itself), especially when you're not already in the immediate area for another purpose, is tedious.

Fishing isn't in RIFT but for purposes of this hypothetical let's pretend it is. Imagine being in a major city and going to the (new) docks. You right click on a nearby angler NPC or school of fish and a window pops up:

http://i53.tinypic.com/28u00ep.jpg
Clear the seaweed, fish bones and used condoms. Those delicious clownfish fall into the net. For every 3 collected, you get 1 in the game. Or something. You gain occasional skill ups by catching fish in the net. Trash and fish keep filling the cleared spaces (coming down from the top) so you can continue skilling up/harvesting for as long as you want to play the minigame. Your skill level unlocks potentially harder minigames that award tastier fish.

I don't imagine this as a more time efficient way to skill up and harvest, but it's a fun and useful way for those who don't like traditional harvesting to pass the time while in a city or quest hub.

Free Realms has gathering like this, but you can't play that game without feeling like a grandparent. Also, no used condoms.

Another idea: You could create mobile/tablet apps that require an account to play. You pick one of your characters, a harvesting skill and corresponding mini-game and harvest/skill up via the app. The skills are applied to your character and the loot is mailed to your character in-game.